Is it the Stain Resistor not performing though?

Having been distributing products for polished concrete for some 8 years now, I would say the biggest problem I hear about is the end user of the floor surface having problems with staining, in particular the domestic customer. We all know that concrete is a porous substrate and appreciate that as the surface is refined it closes up and becomes tighter and tighter and develops that glorious shine that we all find so pleasing! however, take a close look microscopically and there is an array of pits, pores and capillaries sitting, waiting to welcome those nasty stain forming fluids into your finished floor surface.

So the call comes in to question the integrity of the stain resistor or guard product you supplied. "did you grout the floor"? sometimes - "yes", sometimes- "no". "Did you densify"? "yes". The burning question is did they Densify properly?

I do still believe densification of polished concrete floors in the UK is being skimmed over a bit in the sense that there may be a lack of understanding exactly what it is the Densifier is supposed to be doing. Asides the silicate reacting with the Calcium Hydroxide to create Calcium Silicate Hydrate, we are also looking to fill the concrete pores to create an insoluble barrier thus preventing the ingress of stain causing liquids as well as creating a more dense substrate to deliver gloss and clarity, not to forget a surface with high abrasion resistance.

So my advice is to apply your chosen Densifier at the correct stage of your grind and polish project according to the manufacturers instruction as this will be the optimum surface profile into which the silicate within the Densifier will get into the floor without getting too deep or sitting too surface. Make sure you apply the Densifier to the point of rejection so you're really filling the floor up & keep the surface wet for at least 20 minutes, topping up any dehydrated areas as they appear. In many cases you can proceed with your polishing fairly quickly for example with Ameripolish 3DHS, you can wait for 1 hour after applying the Densifier and then carry on but I would always recommend that after this 400 stage you "top up" the densifier with a light mist coat simply to replace any top line silicate you might have cut away. This will improve your final gloss and DOI results at the back end. With that said however, I believe you're better to leave the densifier overnight before proceeding but on small projects this isn't practical!

So getting back to the initial point to this article, stain resistors and guards are not miracle products, they're great products which tend to be compromised due to poor "middle work" in the polishing process. Their intended design criteria is to offer a "window of opportunity" within which the spill can be removed without damage to the floor and at the same time be almost invisible so as not to disrupt the aesthetic of the beautifully refined sharp shine of the polished concrete floor.

The key to a great finish is density so certainly one of two things you can do as a contractor is to densify fully as well as grout. Once you've taken care of as many ingress potentials in the floor, you can put all your faith into your stain resistor or guard knowing that you've done the "middle work".

Here's a project I helped with some years ago on a floor which quite frankly may as well have been put in with the back of a shovel, here's what we achieved.

The surface was very porous, weak, abrasive and full of footprints etc

We grouted using Metzger McGuire Pit Grout

We FULLY densified using Ameripolish 3DHS

We finished with a super dense polished concrete finish which was able to hold off liquids and oils, ready for the collection of supercars to be stored and complimented!